Improved process and apparatus for utilizing the waste coal op mines



' tan-ma. itatrt pane Gtihiirr.

T. M. MITCHELL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE ANTHRA- GITE-FUEL-MANUFAOTURING COMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA.

IMPROVED PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR UTILIZING THE WASTE COAL OI MINES.

The Schedule referred to inthese Letters; Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom, it may concern Be it known that I, T. M. MITCHELL, Engineer of the city of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Process and Apparatus for Utilizing the Waste Goal of the Mines, by converting the said waste into solid inodorons lumps or blocks of pure fuel.

My said invention may be described in three parts or divisions: first, the drying and baking-portion of the apparatus; second, the mixing-portion of the same; and third, the process; and each part may therefore be considered under three distinct specifications; and the first and second .parts having been fully described under respective specifications, marked Division A and Division B, the present specification (Division G) will relate specially to the process, but involve, to some extent, the use of the other two parts (A and B) of'niy said invention; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, cleai, and exact description of the said process. v

' The waste coal of the mines which is, by this process, to be converted into the solid inodorons lumps or blocks of fuel, is first to be washed or cleansed from all the dirt and loam contained in it, by means of any suitable agitating perforated separator, or rotating hollow cylinder of coarse wire or perforated sheetmetal, with water constantly passing through it, so that the latter will carry off, through the perforations or meshes, all the said dirt or loam, and leave the fine coal and shale remaining. The said remains are then hoisted, by means of any suitable hoisting-buckets, to the upper room of a suitable building, where it is dumped into a second rotating screen, the meshes of which allow the pure coal to escape through them into a hopper,.opeulng above and communicating with a pair ofsmooth-faced iron rollers, which crush or grind thesaid particles of coal into a fine powder,the shale passing 'out of the building, as refuse, from the open lower end of the' said screen.

The fine coal-powder is then conveyed, by a chute, or otherwise, to the mouth of any suitable sheet or cast-iron receivi'ng-oylinder, provided with a rotating worm-shaft, that will. convey or push the said coalpowder along in and out of the said cylinder.

Oonncted with the mouth of this receiving-vessel, is any suitable retort,- in which coal-tar may be submitted to about 280 or 300 of heat, and thirty-five or forty per cent-um of volatile matter thrown off, so as to reduce the tar to a pitch, which, or its equivawhich is fully described in the specification marked Division B, and from this mixer the constituents of the mass, in connection with steam, being worked thereby into an intimately-mixed or thoroughly incorporated and heated condition, is conveyed in suitable portions to the moulds of a powerful press, ofany suitable construction, and thereby condensed into solid lumps, blocks, or cylinders, of suitable sizes for 'fuel.

From the press, the said lumps, blocks, or cylinders, fall into receiving cars, which convey them into the drying and baking-ovens, described and set forth in specification marked Division A, whereby all the moisture and the odoriferous or volatile matter are driven off, and thus the treatment or process completed. The cars are now to be run out of the ovens, and their contents discharged, for cooling and transportation or storage, as solid inodorons lumps, blocks, or cylinders of pure fuel.

Being free from odor, this fuel may, like the' broken anthracite coal, be acceptably stored for any leagth of time in the cellars of dwellings, and, being solidified, and entirely free from stones, shale, and dirt, the lumps will retain their form in the fire during the combustion of the carbonaceous matter; and the ashes crumbling in raking the fire, will pass freely through the grate in the pulverized condition required for agricultural purposes.

' Having thus fully describedmy'improvement,

What I claim herein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- The process described, the same consisting in intimately mixing the purified waste coal and the agglutinating or resinous matter together in a hot state, condensing the same into solid lumps, and finally depriving the said lumps of their volatile and odorous matter, substantially as and for the purpose described.

v T. M. MITCHELL, Eng.

Witnesses:

BENJ. Momson, WM.- H. Momson. 

